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So, How’s That 24/7 Thing Going For Empire Biscuit?

A month and a half after Empire Biscuit opened to out-the-door lines and magazine write-ups galore, the biscuit buzz is still going strong: New York dropped two Underground Gourmet stars on the shop today. But that doesn’t mean the place is packed around the clock. It ain’t easy being 24/7 (right across Avenue A, BAD Burger had to give up the dream last year), so we decided to drop in at 6 a.m. and ask the shop’s owners how their “breakfast, lunch, dinner, drunk” business model is holding up.
Jonathan Price and Yonadev Tsuna told us their peak hours are midday on Sunday, from about 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., when they easily crank out biscuits for several hundred customers. If the shop had to close during off-peak times, it would only be for a few hours early in the morning on Mondays through Wednesdays, which doesn’t seem worth it, Price said. They offer a biscuit happy hour from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. during the week, with discounts on their egg sandwiches to entice cops and bartenders getting off their shifts.

In the coming weeks, Empire plans to roll out delivery. The team is still working out the logistics of delivering piping hot biscuits fresh to East Villagers’ doors in winter weather and they haven’t yet decided whether they’ll offer the service 24/7 there, too. Tsuna said he’d also like to start a retail line of the shop’s jams and jellies.

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Bedford + Bowery is where downtown Manhattan and north Brooklyn intersect. Produced by NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute in collaboration with New York magazine, B + B covers the East Village, Lower East Side, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, and beyond. Want to contribute? Send a tip? E-mail the editor.